A variety of rope brakes have been utilized for years by tree removal professionals to assist in the removal of trees whose limbs have grown to extend out over valuable property such as homes or fencing etc. Rope brakes give the “cutter” up in the tree a tool that allows them to tie off limbs, branches and logs and then have them safely lowered to the ground without the benefit of a crane.
Rope brakes are not needed when the tree can be felled from the ground. Rope brakes are not needed when there are no valuable or vulnerable items underneath the trees or closely adjacent to them. When there is nothing under the tree, it is fastest and easiest for the cutter (the person in the tree doing the rigging and cutting) to just cut the limbs and logs and let them harmlessly drop to the ground. Rope brakes are needed when things such as homes, smaller trees, rose gardens, fencing, gazebos, phone lines, utility boxes, swimming pools, etc. exist underneath trees and cannot tolerate having limbs and logs dropped on them. Because of this, any failure during the process of utilizing the rope brake is likely to have negative consequences such as damage to property, personal injury, or death in the statistically very dangerous profession of tree work.
Thus, rope brakes are used so that heavy limbs or logs cut by the cutter can be suspended in the crown of the tree by a rope before they are lowered slowly (generally by the hands of a belayer on the ground) to a safe spot on the ground so as to do no damage to the vulnerable items under the tree.
Drum rope brakes consist of a metallic drum (usually two to five inches in diameter and four to eight inches in length) that is securely affixed to a stationary plate or plate like apparatus that prevents the drum from spinning. The plate apparatus in turn has some component that allows for the attachment of a rope or strap that in turn enables the rope brake to be securely strapped to the trunk of a tree or tied up in the crown of the tree.
“Crown mounted” rope brakes are mounted in the crown of the tree, as opposed to the alternative “base mounted” brake which is mounted at the base of the tree.
The rope brake device must be securely attached up in the crown of the tree with rope by the cutter. After the brake has been secured to the tree, the cutter takes a long rope and wraps it around the brake drum one, two or three times. After these wraps have been taken, enough extra length of rope is drawn out from the brake drum so as to enable the cutter to reach and “tie off” the limb or log that the cutter desires to safely lower to an open area on the ground. After the log or limb has been tied off, the cutter then instructs the belayer (hypothetically one hundred and fifty pounds) on the ground to grab the opposite end of the rope hanging out of the tree and hold on securely, while moving (for safety reasons) to an area where he isn't standing under the log being cut or in the direction in which the log will swing. The cutter then proceeds to make the cut on the log (hypothetically weighing five hundred pounds) that hangs over the house or other structure. After making the cut, the weight of the dropping log begins to pull down on the rope, constricting the rope around the drum. This constriction creates friction between the rope and drum and that friction enables the lighter belayer to hold the heavier log or limb in the air. The more wraps around the drum, the more friction and the more weight that can be held. Upon direction of the cutter, or on his own discretion if he is experienced and trusted, the belayer lowers the log to the ground. Because the rope brake is up in the tree, sometimes (after the log has been stabilized) it is advantageous for the cutter to grab a hold of the rope and lower it toward the ground so that the grounds person can maneuver the slowly descending log so as to miss obstacles on the ground.
Two wraps around the drum will create more friction on the drum than one wrap and three wraps will create more friction than two wraps. Light loads need one wrap, while heavy loads need three wraps. In this situation, once the log's downward inertia has been stopped, the belayer would be able to hold the 500 lb. log in the air with just his thumb and index finger squeezing the rope. Upon direction of the cutter, the belayer lowers the log to the open area on the ground.
Rope brakes mounted at the base of the tree operate on the same principles, but as they are mounted at the base of the tree, one end of the rope can't simply be attached to a log up in the tree to be cut, or the log would just drop to the ground along with the rope attached to it. Therefore, with “base mounted” rope brakes, the cutter must first install a pulley up in the crown of the tree higher than the log to be cut. The rope from the rope brake is pulled up into the tree and ran through the pulley and then secured to the log to be cut. After the cut, the log then hangs suspended by the pulley due to the friction of the rope brake at the base of the tree. Because of the pulley's location in the tree, the force against the rope brake is upwardly vertical. This vertical force means that the base mounted drum rope brake can't just be hung from the base of the tree because the upward pull would violently flip the rope brake both upside down and backwards against the trunk of the tree. For this reason, the base mounted brake must also be extremely firmly strapped to the base of the tree with a ratchet mechanism or chained to the base with a binder to cinch the chain. The base mounted brake makes it impossible for the cutter in the tree to lower the log because the rope brake isn't between him and the log and he would not have the physical ability to hold the load without a mechanical advantage.
Whether base mounted or crown mounted, several types of problems have existed with prior art rope brakes that compromised both efficiency and safety.
No drum type rope brake has enclosed rope guides. This can lead to the rope wraps on the brake drum migrating together and cause chafing and wear on the ropes. Also, the loaded rope can overlap itself on the drum, locking the rope into place, making it impossible to lower the log from the tree, and creating the difficult and dangerous task of getting the wraps unbound while the rope is loaded without getting fingers pinched while the log or limb is hanging overhead. Also, the rope can come off the drum completely, with consequences of property damage, personal injury, or death. The rope also can be pulled left or right and cut by the flanges of the rope brake, that are similar in appearance to snatch blocks.
The lack of enclosed rope guides means that if a rope brake flips upside down, backwards and sideways, (which happens for a variety of reasons), the rope is able to get out of place on the drum or pulled off the drum completely.
If the rope is pulled off of the drum completely, catastrophic results can occur immediately. For example, log can drop straight down through the customer's roof and into their house. If the rope comes off as the log is swinging, the log can become a flying projectile that is extremely dangerous to anyone or anything in the vicinity of the tree.
When rope wraps around a drum migrate together, the rope against rope contact under loaded conditions causes excessive and often unnoticeable wear on the rope, compromising the rope's strength for future applications, which is dangerous.
When rope wraps get overlapped on themselves under a load, the pinching point between the two ropes has the effect of literally locking the rope in place. This doesn't simply make the lowering of logs or limbs impossible, it creates a situation that is dangerous in several ways. As the rope is under a load, without a crane, there is no way to get the overlapped rope undone from itself and back into position without the belayer getting his hands and finders perilously close to a loaded and dangerous pinch point with a risk of cutting off fingers, braking fingers or causing severe rope burns. If the crew is using a “base mounted” rope brake, the belayer on the ground will also possibly either be standing directly or nearly directly under the heavy log or long limb which they are trying to safely lower as he tries to accomplish the difficult task of getting the rope unbound without getting his fingers pinched or losing control of the rope.
Several types of problems have existed with prior art crown rope brakes that compromised both efficiency and safety. In the process of attaching various devices to the tree, none have been designed to allow for tensionless hitch rope attachments. Subsequently, a weaker and more time consuming method of attachment to the tree has been required. None have allowed for the creation of an inverted basket hitch, a method of lifting with a rope or sling that has long been known to effectively double the work load capability of the rope or sling doing the lifting and no prior art brakes have enabled two attachment points.
Another concern with prior art “crown mounted” units is that they do not have the safest and quickest means of attachment to the trunk of the tree. Prior art crown mounted rope brakes have all been designed to hang from one end of one rope. Thus, an attachment rope must be wrapped around a limb or trunk of the tree and then secured with a “rope against rope knot” to itself, such as a quick and easily made, running bowline knot. The “rope against rope knot” in this form of usage is less than ideal because of the friction and abrasion that is created at the point where two crossing sections of rope chafe as they come together. This is a known problem with knots, but it is made worse in this application because the load the rope is bearing is neither stagnant nor are the blunt forces against it singular. In this application, the exact same points in the rope may well have to take the blunt force from many tied off limbs or logs of unknown weights, and the force and the chaffing on the rope is increased, often dramatically, because the logs and limbs are dropping before they are “caught” by the rope. Prior art designs also have required two knots at different vertical elevations for attachment to the tree, which requires more distance between the attachment point to the tree and the drum. This means there will be a greater vertical drop of the log if it has been cut from above the rope brake, increasing the force the rope must catch. The rope may or may not fail immediately at the attachment point, but it will be made weaker than the rest of the rope and will need to be replaced sooner, and if it isn't replaced in time, an accident is predictable. Also, the more elevation drop there is, the more jolt there is on the rope brake, on the rope attached to the tree, on the lowering rope, and to the branch supporting the climber with running chainsaw in hand. The greater the jolt on the trunk of the tree, the greater the trunk reverberates. If the cutter is in an aerial lift device bucket, the more reverberation there is, the more likely he is to have the reverberating log come back and hit him in the face or smash his fingers on the edge of the bucket.
Another concern with previous attachment designs of crown mounted brakes is the hanging rope attached to a singular connecting point on the top of the rope brake. Because of the one point of attachment, 100% of the load's force is on that one hanging rope and that one attachment point.
Aside from safety issues, the two knots required by prior art “crown mounted” rope brakes consume time and energy, especially in those situations where the cutter desires to frequently move the rope brake around the crown of the tree. Tying the rope brake to a hanging rope necessitates that the cutter hold onto the rope brake to keep it aloft almost continually while tying the knot to keep the weight of the rope brake off the rope he is attempting to tie. One prior art crown mounted device disassembles (similar to a snatch block), but it is designed to be attached to the tree trunk a single spliced eyelet and has edges capable of cutting a loaded rope when the rope is pulled at conflicting angles. This can especially occur when the apparatus is pulled tightly backward toward the trunk of the tree, which in turn prohibits the brake from rotating directly in line with the load. It is then that the loaded rope can be gouged or cut by the flange of the apparatus. Furthermore, a snatch block type device not only has moving parts, but the strength of the device is entirely reliant upon pins, bolts and nuts that can develop hairline cracks and require disassembly of the device for inspection. There are no prior art horizontally affixed drum mounted rope brakes that have no moving or removable parts and no sharp edges.
Therefore, there is a need to improve rope brakes for use in tree trimming and tree removal.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of a rope brake which overcomes the problems of the prior art.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved rope brake used for tree trimming and tree removal.
Still another objection of the present invention is the provision of a rope brake having guides through which the rope extends without overlapping.
Yet another objective of the present invention is the provision of a tree brake having a cylindrical drum around which the rope is wrapped and having channels to prevent the rope from chafing against itself during use.
Yet another objective of the present invention is the provision of a rope brake having a drum mounted to a back plate, with mounting bars extending laterally outwardly from opposite sides of the back plate to tie the brake to the tree.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a method of lowering a branch cut from a tree using a rope brake around which a rope wraps without overlapping, with one end of the rope tied to the branch to be cut and the opposite end held under tension by an operator who controls lowering of the branch after the branch is cut from the tree.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a rope brake made with a one-piece, unitary construction and no moving parts.
Still another objective of the present invention is a provision of a rope brake which is free from sharp edges so as to extend the life of the rope used with the brake.
Yet another objective of the present invention is a provision of a rope brake assembly including a cylindrical drum with a back plate for mounting the drum to the tree, and a rope wrapped around the drum and through a plurality of rope guides or channels to prevent the rope from overlapping upon itself during use.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a rope brake which is easy and safe to use, which minimizes or eliminates excessive wear on the rope during usage, and is economical to manufacture.
These and other objectives will become apparent from the following description of the invention.